Azu's Journey
by Soulfirestory
Summary: This will be my last chapter. I quit maplestory because of hackers. I am sorry if you waited so badly for this. Just to let you know, Azu didn't die.
1. Chapter 1

**Maplestory Fanfic**

By Annie Cho

Author's Note: I do not own Maplestory but I play the game.

An ordinary teenage Asian girl with short hair, wearing military pants, black T-shirt and a blue vest; stands at the vast empty desert. She has a sword tucked behind her and grabs it, ready to take on anything that approaches.

"Everyone. This is the final exam. Do you copy?" the teacher says through the microphone that leads to the battle stimulator in the computer.

"Yes sir," the girl replies.

The desert is so hot that the fumes are visible when the girl stares at the horizon. Five seconds later, a huge crowd of monsters, about 100 walks toward her. There are fifty blue snails, twenty snails, twenty red mushrooms, eight red snails and two orange mushrooms. The snails are about two feet tall and two feet wide. The two types of mushrooms have different sizes. The red mushrooms are about the same size as the snails. The orange mushrooms are the size of a human.

They are vicious monsters despite innocent looks. When they have their eyes on the girl, their expressions turn from happy to ferocious. They stare at her darkly. The air of the endless desert turns quiet and tense at the same time.

The girl smiles confidently.

Suddenly a blue snail attacks her. She guards herself with her sword. The blue snail bounces off the sword and falls. An orange mushroom then jumps on her. It falls on her and then it stomps on her stomach constantly; the orange mushroom is so fat and heavy that it hurts, like being crush by a sumo wrestler.

"Damn you, stupid Mushroom! Go to hell!" She stabs its stomach and the orange mushroom cries.

"Too bad I am a warrior," she says and splits the orange mushroom vertically.

The other monsters surround her. She slashes a monster, throws it at another monster, and kills the monster next to her. She continues to kill monsters until they are all dead. The whole scene lasts less than fifteen minutes.

The girl sweats and pants in fatigue. "Damn them."

"As expected. Congratulations, Azu. You passed. Your time is 10 minutes, which is one of the best," Mr. Rodski says.

Azu smiles at her results. The computer teleports Azu out of the stimulator. Azu lands to the real world.

"This is getting boring. All monsters are too easy. I want to get to the point when I can kill Balrogs!"

Azu says.

"Wait until you step out of Maple Island; you will be dead big time. Players have to be levels over one hundred to be able to kill Balrogs. Don't get conceited just because you killed _one hundred_ monsters in ten minutes. In Maple Island, the strongest monsters are orange mushrooms. In Victoria Island, orange mushrooms are just ants, way too easy to kill. There are many strong monsters out there," Mr. Rodski says.

"Yeah whatever," Azu walks off the exam platform.

Mr. Rodski sighs.

The next day, Azu and other graduates board the ships to Victoria Island. There are mages, bowmen, thieves and other warriors like her. They are all chatting excitingly as the ships move to Victoria Island. Azu overhears a conversation between a male thief and a female mage.

"I heard warriors level the fastest but I like to choose to be a thief. Thieves advance to be an assassins or bandits. We don't learn to steal but we kill monsters in the shadows. I like being a thief is because we attack opponents in shadows."

Azu smiles triumphantly.

"I like to be a mage because mages can attack both near and far," the female mage says.

Azu decides to join in the conversation.

"Hey."

"Hello," the female mage and the male thief say together.

"You're a warrior? That's cool," the male thief says.

"I am going to kill Balrogs once I reach Victoria Island," Azu says.

"Balrogs? Shouldn't you train a lot before you go find Balrogs?"

"I level fast, didn't you say that? I can handle myself,"

"Okay, I'm just saying. No hard feelings."

The female mage and male thief decide to stop talking to Azu afterwards for the rest of the ride.

Once the ship reaches Victoria Island, Azu is the first one to rush out of the ship.

"Look at her, she's so arrogant," the female mage says.

"Never mind her. Let's go," the male thief says.

"Okay. Mr. Rodski says to get the first skills book and job in Perion," she says to herself. She walks to the ticket booth.

"What is your destination? The fee is free for first arrivals," the ticket usher says.

"Perion," Azu says.

"Put the ticket under the light where it has an arrow pointing up. There is a gap there for you to insert your ticket. After that put your hand on the arrow."

Azu inserts the ticket in the gap. As soon as she lays her hand on the arrow she immediately feels as if she is being absorbed into a vacuum. A second later, she lands on a rocky plateau market. People around her are talking normally as if this is a normal phenomenon. The merchants are yelling, "Look at our merchandise!"

"Excuse me, where is the Master Awaki?" Azu asks the by passer.

"He's at the top of the mountain. You need to climb a series of ropes and stairs," the by passer says.

"Okay. Thank you."

Azu quickly runs and climbs to the summit of the mountain. She sees a temple and enters it. She quickly opens the door as if there is no tomorrow and walks in.

"Well, hello," says a Native American sitting at the peak of the rocks where it is lead by stairs.

"Are you Master Awaki? I came to look for a job."

"Oh. Yes I am. Welcome to Perion. Before you start your journey I must register you as a swordsman. Here," Master Awaki thrusts a book at Azu. Azu catches it with no trouble.

"Now open the book."

Azu opens the book. Bits of sparkling light radiate from the page of the book. The light sinks into her forehead.

"You are indeed strong enough, since you are able to open the book."

Azu looks up at him.

"People who are not strong enough for the second job advancement cannot open the book."

Azu nods. _Can't I get this over with?_

"Now be patient or else you bump into trouble."

Azu looks at him in surprise. "How did you know I was impatient?"

"I can not read thoughts. Don't worry. But the expression on your face shows everything."

Azu wipes her face with her sleeve.

"The sparkling matter is skill points granted to first comers."

Azu bows. "Thank you," Azu turns her back towards Master Awaki and walks away.

"Kill Light Stumps first and rise to stronger monsters," Master Awaki says.

Before she steps out of the door Azu asks, "Where do you find Balrogs?"

"Balrogs? Ho. HO. Young lady, I think you have overestimated yourself. Balrogs are for masters. You are now only a rookie."

Azu ignores Master Awaki. _Fine then, I look for Balrogs myself._

Azu leaves the temple. On her way out, she overheard a group of warriors talking.

"Yo. Let's go deep into the mountains and find strong monsters," one of them says.

They start to walk. Azu follows them silently.

The group of warriors starts to separate their own ways to look for monsters to kill when they reach an area of absolutely isolated rocky plateau. The place does not have any sign of humans except monsters. Azu separates herself from them to look for Balrogs. As she walks farther away from them she sees nothing but rocks and sand. She passes different types of monsters, Dark Axe Stumps, Wild Boars, Fire Wild Boars, Dracos and Lupins. Dark Axe Stumps seems like dark stumps that walk around with axes on their heads. _Do they ever get tired of having axes on their heads? _The sight seems idiotic. _They are monsters?_ Wild Boars seem similar to running furry wild pigs. Fire Wild Boars are running wild pigs with fire surrounding their body._ Have anyone roasted them for a meal?_ Lupins are wild monkeys who throw bananas at people. This is the first time for Azu to see them. Azu has to be 5 yards away from them in order to stop them from throwing bananas. Azu walks away from their 'oooh, oooh, ah ah' chants because of her annoyance. Dracos are dragons. Azu observes them for a while. They have a tendency to growl every 3 seconds as they walk around. _Do they ever get bored?_

Azu continues to walk. The journey seems as if it is an hour later. _Where are the Balrogs?_

Azu then sees a small flying figure meters away from her. The distance between the small flying figure is similar to a football field. The figure is getting bigger as it gets closer. The figure is brown. _Could this be the legendary monster, Balrog?_ Azu has her sword out, ready for battle. She runs toward the flying figure. As she gets closer to the figure she immediately recognizes it's features she have seen from a book. It is definitely a Balrog.

The Balrog flies above the ground and points his finger at Azu. Ten Dracos are behind him. The Dracos growl in unison and runs toward Azu. Their footsteps sounds like rolling thunder.

Azu rushes toward them and then jumps to strike one. Before she lands on one of the Dracos, another Draco jumps behind her. The Draco pushes Azu to the ground. It's nasty claws slashes Azu's torso. Azu bounces backwards, grasps her black T-shirt and shrieks in pain. The Dracos surround her. They are more merciless than Azu thought. Azu tries to get up but another Draco attacks her with a head butt. The Draco's head clashes with Azu's forehead. The Draco's skull feels like a hard rock. Azu lowers her head and clutches her forehead in pain. She starts to retreat backwards with her sword. This is a life and death situation. The Draco attempts a head butt again. This time Azu dodges it, jumps over it to attack another Draco. Azu lands on the ground in front of another Draco and tries to behead it. The sword hit it's neck but did not sink into the skin of the Dracos. The Dracos looks at her as if some ant has bitten it. He glares at Azu. Azu looks at it's eyes fearfully. When her sword clashes with the Dracos' neck, it feels like clashing against extremely tough leather. None of her techniques work on them.

A Draco attacks her from behind. Azu feels as if a huge boulder hit the back of her head and back. She falls to the ground, feeling numb. Strangely, her mind is still clear enough to think despite her head is throbbing incredibly after the impact. Many streams of thought come to Azu's mind. Azu starts to regret what she did. She is a pompous and she is getting her punishment right now. Azu's vision becomes blurry. In the same time, she hears human footsteps running closer to her. Before she closes her eyes she sees a few human figures killing Dracos through blurry vision. Dracos cry in the background. _Is this an illusion? Am I dead?_ Azu loses consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Ow," Azu yelps as she sits up after she wakes up. She is energized but has a splitting headache.

"You're alive eh? Foolish little sister. You're lucky we found you," a cold voice says.

Azu's vision begin to clear and she sees her older sister, a cleric; her boyfriend a fire mage and a few others she does not know.

"I learned my lesson. I'll sharpen my skills before doing anything," Azu says.

"Good. And I will not watch your back anymore. You're annoying," her older sister says.

"I don't need you to watch my back. I'll leave," Azu says. She stands up from the bed and leaves the room.

"Is that--

"She'll be okay. She has to learn from her mistakes," Azu's older sister interrupts her boyfriend.

"Okay."

"Man, this stinks. I thought I wouldn't bump into her but if she and her friends aren't there I would be dead by now," Azu says to herself.

Azu sits on a bench to rest. She looks at everyone that passes by her.

"Yo," a male mage says.

Azu waves. The guy sits next to her.

"The town of Henesy is beautiful isn't it? I am not an archer but just by sitting here, I can already see it."

"Cool."

"Warriors heal faster than other classes."

"However, Warriors have weaknesses. Mages can attack both near and far without hurting themselves. Warriors can attack far by using a ability called _slash blast_ but the user have to sacrafice some health."

"True."

"Don't go hunt Balrogs unless you're level 100 or higher."

The male mage laughs. "Who would? Come on. Even if I am confident, I have to calculate the chances. Confident is good but a person cannot be overconfident or else the person gets himself or herself in danger."

"Yeah."

"I didn't talk for the sake of flirting. I am recovering from the rough training I went through today."

"Cool."

"Since we met, might as well introduce myself. I'm Takashi. A fire mage soon to be."

"I'm Azu, a page soon to be."

Azu and Takashi shake hands.

"Let's go and train," Takashi says.

"Okay."

Takashi casts magic claw on the enemies. An enemy tried to snuck on Takashi but Azu quickly kills it.

"Not bad," Takashi says.

After that, Azu and Takashi became friends. They are good partners.


End file.
